Deitch: Halladay won't slow down to let his age catch up

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Roy Halladay delivers against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning of their baseball game in Los Angeles, Tuesday, July 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

CLEARWATER, Fla. — In retrospect, it is logical: Run up and down hundreds and hundreds of concrete steps frequently for a decade, and eventually age and that relentless pounding will catch up to you.

During an interesting and informative 20-minute press conference Wednesday, Roy Halladay essentially confessed that the thing that had become his folklorish trademark of success — running up and down stadium steps, like a rubber-toeing Rocky — had not done his body any favors as his age creeped upward.

While Halladay did, indeed, suffer a strained shoulder that put him out of action for six weeks, he believes the real issue started in his lower back. Last spring training the right-hander noticed his lower back stiffening. That stiffening messed with his flexibility, which messed with his delivery, which messed with his shoulder. And even when he returned from the disabled list, his back messed with his routine, which became a trial-and-error nightmare for a guy whose routine had been the stuff of legends.

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And that is the story of how a guy who won 40 games, had a sub-2.50 ERA and won one Cy Young Award and finished second for another in the previous two seasons became painfully mortal in 2012.

“It kind of snuck up on me,” Halladay said of his back woes, “and it changed a lot of the things I did mechanically. So, going into this winter that was a focus for us.”

There is no way to know if Halladay’s back issues can be corralled by his new workout regimen. It would be one thing if his back were the product of ignorance toward, say, the strength of his core. That can be fixed. But a back that became a problem thanks to the persistent pounding of a man obsessed with an old-school workout ethic — it’s tough to predict where it will be after 50 innings, or 100, or 200, or 320 innings.

“I don’t,” Halladay said when asked if he worried about the combination of his age, health and contract status. “I’m playing to win a World Series. That’s why I’m playing baseball and for no other reason. However we get to that goal, that’s the bottom line.

“If it takes 320 innings and I can throw it, I’ll do it. That’s the reason I’m here. And that’s it. I’m not worried about next year and two years and three years from now. I’m trying to win a World Series.”

If Halladay gets to 258 2/3 innings this season — a threshold he only reached once, a decade ago — his $20 million option for 2013 is vested. It also means he probably won his third Cy Young, because six of the nine pitchers who have thrown 250 or more innings in a season since 2000 have finished either first and second in the voting. That includes both of Halladay’s Cy wins.

The Phillies of 2013 are at a crossroads of sorts. Chase Utley’s contract ends. Carlos Ruiz’s contract ends. Halladay’s contract might well end. Ryan Howard is three years removed from greatness. A lot of things would have to go right in order for the Phillies to make up the ground lost when the Nationals and Braves blossomed thanks to young players with potential turning the corner.

It’s why Halladay is right to consider this season one where he can empty the tank. He will put his new workouts to the test, see if his back will behave this season, and doesn’t care what the consequences of being a workhorse means.

“I think there’s always urgency,” he said. “I don’t think anybody goes into a season and says ‘Maybe we should win this three years from now.’ You want to win it now. I think you have to have that mentality, regardless of your age.”

Apparently Halladay isn’t familiar with Stephen Strasburg and Mike Rizzo in D.C. Because there indeed are those who think that way.

Not Halladay. It’s why he spent day after day, pounding up and down the unforgiving steps of the upper decks of ballparks, not worrying about what the laws of physics would unleash on him down the road, not allowing logic to get in the way of greatness.